Storm
by Draco38
Summary: Sailor that he is, even Dutch cannot always predict the weather.


I do not own Black Lagoon or any of its characters

Updated: 10/3/13

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Storm

Fingers of lighting ripped across the sky as black clouds rolled like smoke boiling from a fire. Thirty foot high waves rolled and tossed the little wooden PT boat as the captain tried to hold the bow into the wind. "Benny!" Dutch called into the headset, "Where the hell did this storm come from!?"

"I swear I don't know Dutch! Weather reports called for some rolling seas but nothing like this!" Benny cried back over the intercom.

Over the last hour and a half the weather had taken a bad turn and was getting worse by the minute. The Black Lagoon was on its way home after dropping some people off on an island for Hotel Moscow. Nothing to it, run out, drop the passengers off and run home. Now they were facing a growing storm unlike any Dutch had seen in many years.

The door to the pilothouse suddenly crashed open letting in a flood of water. Revy dove through the door with Rock, who slammed it behind them and dogged the latches. "Everything's tied down and latched best we could, Dutch." Rock said.

Revy grabbed the back of the command chair as the boat bounced like a bucking bull. "Damnit I hate this shit!" Revy cried out as she hung on to the chair.

"We're getting tossed around like a piece of driftwood." Dutch said as he fought the controls. "If we can get in the lee of an island, we can ride this out but we got to make five miles to get in striking range of one." Dutch told them. He leaned over and tapped the radar repeater on the control board and said, "On top of that there are three ships out there and I don't like the way two of them are moving."

"What do you mean?" Rock asked as he leaned over to look at the radar.

"Two of them are moving with the wind," Dutch said as he pointed to the blips on the screen. "I'm afraid they're adrift and out of control. The third ship is fighting into the wind like we are."

"Could we move with the wind?" Rock asked.

"Yeah, but that would put us further out to sea and we would stay in the storm longer." Dutch told him. "And we run the chance of being pooped."

"Pooped? What's that?" Rock asked looking at Dutch.

"Old sailing ships had a deck on the stern called the poop deck. If they ran before the wind in a storm and the waves got too bad they could get crushed from behind. They called it being 'pooped'. If that was to happen to us, the waves would push us under bow first and we would start playing submarine with no way to come back up," the captain replied.

Suddenly the radar flickered and went dead. "BENNY!" Dutch cried out into the headset, "What the fucks wrong with the radar!?"

"All the circuit breakers just blew! I'm working on it!" Benny called back.

"Revy! Rock! Keep your eyes peeled out the windows! Look for lights coming at us! I don't want to get run over out here!" Dutch said.

Five minutes later they could still hear Benny cursing from below as he tried to get the systems working again. "Dutch?" Revy said, "What the fuck is that?" She pointed out the windows to the port bow. Dutch and Rock leaned forward and strained to see a black mass sweeping around from left to right. As they dove into the trough of another wave and came up on top again they could read the words ANKO MARU in big white letters on the stern of the drifting ship about 300 feet in front of them. Below the stern they could see the giant propeller spinning wildly in the air as the ship crashed up and down in the water.

"HOLY FUCK!" Dutch cried. "We got to get the hell away from that bitch or we'll get cut to pieces!" As they dove back into the wave troughs, he gunned the engines and tried to put distance between them and the fast approaching ship.

"Dutch!" Revy cried. "It's bow is coming around at us!" Dutch turned as far to port as he thought safe, but was afraid they would broach and capsize.

As they watched the bow of the big ship swing toward them, Dutch thought, _That thing must be 20,000 tons at least! We'll never survive a hit from that!_ Suddenly the big ships bow dove into the water and caused the next wave to break before the Lagoon began to climb it.

The world turned inside out as everything disappeared in a solid green mass of water. The Lagoon seemed to leap into the sky, as the bow of the ship passed just feet to the starboard of them and pushed them out the other side of the wave.

"OH SHIIIITTTT!" Revy screamed as the pilothouse turned upside down. Right then the straps that held Dutch in his chair broke and he hurled upward, crashing into the roof with a sickening crunch. The boat landed on its right side and for a moment, seemed to tip to capsize, but another wave hit them and they rolled back to port. Dutch slammed into the left side of the pilothouse and then crashed to the floor beside Revy, blood spewing over her from his wounds.

"Dutch!" Revy screamed, "Benny! Get the fuck up here Dutch is hurt bad!"

Rock, who had clamped down on the control board with a death grip, dove into the pilots chair and grabbed the controls. _Turn into the waves! Turn into the waves!_ Rock thought as he fought to get control of the torpedo boat.

The Lagoon slowly began to respond to Rock's touch as Benny crawled out of the hatch in the rear of the bridge. The blonde's glasses were gone and his hair was flying everywhere. His shirt was half ripped away and he was bleeding from a dozen small cuts. "Electronics room is fucked!" He said as he crawled to where Revy was sitting on Dutch trying to hold him on the deck.

Benny pulled out a pen light and looked into Dutch's eyes. "His nose is broke and he's cut up on his scalp. I think he's got a concussion also."

"FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!" screamed Revy. "Rock! Can you steer this thing!?"

"I think I can hold it for a while! I've been watching Dutch do this but I need something to hold me down, the seat straps are broken!"

Revy jumped up and yanked open a locker next to the hatch. She pulled out some rope as well as a pillow and a blanket and that Dutch kept for when he slept in his command chair. She tossed the bedding to Benny and dropped the rope around Rock in a loop, tying it off to the back of the chair.

"Thanks!" Rock said as the boat crested another wave.

"There's an island off to port!" Rock said as the boat crested the next wave, "If we can get to…" He stopped talking as the boat shuddered and the engines changed pitch and began to stutter.

"Oh shit!" cried Benny as he dove down the hatch. "I'm heading to the engine room!"

"Revy? Are you alright?" Rock asked, concern in his voice, as they crossed the top of another wave.

"Yeah I'm bruised up but fine. You need anything?" She asked as she wiped blood off of Dutch's face with gauze from the first aid kit.

"I could use a drink and a smoke, but other than that just some boat driving lessons!" he replied as the next wave broke over the bow of the Lagoon.

Suddenly Revy leaned in front of him and quickly kissed him on the lips. As she broke away she shoved a lit cigarette in his mouth and said, "I can't fix a drink right now baby, but maybe that will hold you till we can get one!"

_What the fuck!?_ Rock thought as sucked on the smoke and grinned.

The salary man began to try to do what he had seen Dutch doing. As they ran up the face of the wave, he cut to the left and climbed at an angle. As they reached the top he cut back to the right and rode that wave down into the next trough to meet the one bow on. This caused them to work to port to where the island was.

Benny called out over the intercom, "Number one engine is dead! I'm got number two and three steady for now, but it won't hold if we do anymore acrobatics! We got six inches of water back here. I've got the pumps going and we seem to be holding our own, but I've got to stay with them."

"Ok," Rock called back. "We're getting closer to the island and I think we can make a run for it in about five minutes."

After a few minutes of Rock working the boat back and forth across the waves the Lagoon suddenly stopped pitching so hard. "Made it guys!" Rock called out. "Benny? There is a white sand beach! Will it hurt much to run us aground?"

"As long as it's really sand no, but be careful, as soon as you hear sand on the hull stop the engines and toss out the anchor!" Benny called back.

Rock tried his best to ease forward, but the wind was whipping in such a way that he was afraid he was going faster than he wanted. As he heard a hissing sound of sand scraping the hull, Revy said, "Kill the engines Rock! I'll get the anchor!" She dove out the door and ran out onto the bow. Rock watched as she unlashed the steel anchor and threw it as far forward as she could. Then she tied it off and ran back to the pilothouse.

She dogged the hatch again and then collapsed on Rock's lap. He hugged her close and sighed, "We made it. I never want to go through that again."

"No shit," Revy said as she lay her head on his shoulder. "We had been through storms before, but never anything like that!" They sat and caught their breath for a minute before getting up and starting to assess the damage.

000

A few hours later the rain had stopped, and the clouds soon parted to bathe the boat and crew in sunshine. Benny had gotten the number one engine running again and had cleaned the water out of the fuel lines to the others. Rock and Revy sat topside looking through binoculars toward an island about two miles in the distance.

"Never seen shit like that before." Revy said as she passed Rock the glasses. Rock focused on the other island looking at the ANKO MARU, its stern high and dry, but its bow underwater. Rock could see men moving around on its decks and said, "Well looks like they're alive at least. I wonder if they'll want a lift when we get off the sand."

Just then a helicopter with Thai coast guard markings flew into sight near the wrecked ship. It hovered over the freighter for a few minutes and then turned and came towards the Lagoon. Rock stepped into the pilothouse and found his bullhorn as the chopper hovered alongside.

"How fare you?" called the pilot over a loudspeaker as a crewman in the side door looked over the PT boat.

"One injured, but not bad. Ship is seaworthy," Rock called back. "We should be able to set sail as soon as the tide comes in."

The pilot nodded and paused as he talked on his radio. He looked back at Rock and said, "Good sailing, Balalaika says she has a bottle of rum waiting when you get home. Call if you need help." Rock waved ok as the helo turned and headed back to the wrecked ship.

"Woohoo!" Revy cried out. "Yo Ho Ho and a bottle of rum! I wonder what you're gonna drink?" she said as she grinned at Rock. He just laughed and started into the pilothouse to get ready to leave. Dutch had come to a short time earlier and was sitting up in the corner smoking a cigarette.

"Rock? Everything alright?" the man asked.

Rock squatted down beside him and said, "Yeah Dutch. Benny has number one engine back online and the coast guard is helping the crew of the wrecked ship. Balalaika sent word for us to hurry home, she had drinks waiting for us."

"Amen, halleluiah and peanut butter," Dutch said as he nodded a little. "Rock, I want to apologize to you."

"For what, Dutch?" Rock asked with a puzzled look on his face.

"I should have taught you more about driving the boat before this. I knew you had been watching me, but I should have showed you more before now." Dutch reached up and patted Rock on the shoulder, "You saved our ass's son, you stepped up and took control when it was needed."

"Oh Benny could have done it Dutch." Rock said a little embarrassed by the praise the older man was giving him.

"No, not this time, Benny knows how to drive the boat a little, but he had to handle the engines while you ran things. We are going to start training. I want every one of you to learn as much as you can about the others jobs. We don't want to get caught in a pinch like this again. I want this crew to last a long time together."

Rock nodded, "I better get us started then. I think the tide is in enough that we can back out of here without too much trouble. You rest." Dutch nodded as Rock called Revy and Benny and told them to get ready.

A short time later the Black Lagoon backed away from the beach and turned to head out into the shipping channel. Rock had told the others what Dutch had said and they were standing in the pilot house talking about it as he drove.

"So Dutch," Revy said with a mischievous look on her face. "If I learn how to drive the boat does that mean I can use it once in a while just to take a ride?"

Dutch leaned forward and looked at her sternly. "No Rebecca, you may NOT borrow the boat so you can take Rock out necking by the Buddha."

Rock and Benny cracked up as Revy cried out, "Aww Dutch! You never let me have any fun!"

Rock pushed the throttles forward and turned them towards home.

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A/N: I hope everyone enjoys this and as always please leave a review and/or favorite.


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